Should the Government Help You Buy a Solar Panel?
March 4 -- To pioneering astronomer Aden Meinel, the message was loud and clear decades ago. The flow of oil from the Middle East to the United States had slowed to a trickle, bringing this country to its knees and sounding what should have been a rousing wake up call.
President Jimmy Carter had chosen Meinel to lead a group of fellow scientists on an important investigation. Carter wanted the answer to a basic question: Could solar energy help free the nation from its growing and alarming dependence on foreign oil?
Meinel had all the right credentials to answer that question. He and his wife, Marjorie, also an astronomer, had developed telescopic instruments that are still in use to this day, and as the founder of the Kitt Peak National Observatories in Arizona, he helped bring his science to the masses. So in a report to the president, and later in a book, the Meinel's argued that the country could not afford to lose any time in developing a broad-based national solar energy program.
But somewhere along the way the oil spigots were turned on again, and the long lines at the gas stations disappeared, and the report from Meinel's committee began collecting dust. The husband and wife team, who hold many of the top prizes in astronomy and optics, campaigned across the country to try to get their message across, but fewer and fewer people seemed to be listening.
Now, they are both elderly and in poor health. Meinel is so distressed over a recent surgery on his wife that he could not even talk on the telephone.
But the torch has been picked up by a woman who grew up "eating science for dinner." Their daughter, one of seven children Marjorie raised while working alongside her husband, has made solar energy her own passion. And she has come up with an intriguing concept.
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